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Hispanic film festival runs Oct. 15-29 at Salve Regina

NEWPORT, R.I, (Oct. 11, 2017) – Five films produced from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries will be screened as part of the second annual Festival de Cine, an Hispanic film festival hosted by Salve Regina University Oct. 15-29.

All films are open to the public and will be presented in the DiStefano Lecture Hall, located in the Antone Academic Center on the corner of Lawrence and Leroy avenues.

Tickets for individual screenings are $10, while a festival pass for all films may be purchased for $40. Tickets are available at the door or in advance by calling (401) 341-2197. For more information visit: http://www.salve.edu/2017-festival-de-cine.

Receptions will be presented in the lobby of the Antone Center on opening night, Sunday, Oct. 15 at 5 p.m., and on closing night, Sunday, Oct. 29 at 5 p.m.

The following films will be featured during the festival:

Wrinkles/Arrugas
Sunday, Oct. 15 at 6 p.m.

When former bank manager Emilio's family sends him to a retirement home, his new roommate is a wily wheeler-dealer named Miguel who cheerfully swindles small amounts of cash from the more disoriented residents but is also full of handy insider tips that are crucial to survival. We are introduced to daily pill regimens, electric gates and an eccentric cast of characters who rebel against institutional authority while doing everything in their power to avoid being assigned to the dreaded assisted living wing. The hand-drawn animation style allows the film to move freely between the reality-bound daily lives of the "inmates" and their more colorful dementia-induced fantasies, leaving plenty of room for both tears and laughter and pulling no punches in its critique of society's attitude towards the elderly.

Neruda/Neruda
Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.

Gael Garcia Bernal joins award-winning Chilean director Pablo Larrain in this noir-infused reimagining of the Nobel Prize-winning poet and politician's struggle with the state. It's 1948 and the Cold War has reached Chile. In congress, Sen. Pablo Neruda accuses the government of betraying the Communist party and is swiftly impeached by President Gonzalez Videla. Police prefect Oscar Peluchonneau is assigned to arrest the poet. Neruda tries to flee the country with his wife, the painter Delia del Carril, but they are forced into hiding. Inspired by the dramatic events of his new life as a fugitive, Neruda writes his epic collection of poems, "Canto General." Meanwhile, in Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows, and artists led by Pablo Picasso clamor for Neruda's freedom.

Empty Classrooms/El Aula Vacia
Sunday, Oct. 22 at 6 p.m.

Nearly half of all young people in Latin America never finish high school. To explore this dropout crisis, Gael Garcia Bernal gathered 11 award-winning filmmakers to create a captivating anthology of short films, both narrative and documentary. Each short delves into the underlying reasons - from poverty to societal traditions - that students aren't graduating. This omnibus features films from Argentina, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil and Colombia. Among many issues, the films explore the links between the dropout crisis and violence, how to identify students at risk of dropping out of school, the lack of interest in school, school exclusion in indigenous communities, the relationship between the financial cost to staying in school and its benefits, and what happens when dropouts want to go back

Operation E/Operacion E
Thursday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m.

A controversial film in Colombia due to the real event on which it is based (the kidnapping of Clara Rojas and Ingrid Betancourt), "Operation E" was at risk of being banned but was finally released in the country after a politicized trial. Crisanto is a poor cocaine farmer who lives with his family in the Guaviare jungle, a region ruled by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). A group of guerrilla fighters give them a moribund baby and tell them to take care of him. The doctors heal the baby, but believing he's been abandoned and abused, and they take it away. Two years later, the guerrilla asks urgently for the child as he is at the center of an exchange of hostages, negotiated between the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela that is bringing both countries to the brink of war.

10th Man/El Rey Del Once
Sunday, Oct. 29 at 6 p.m.

"The Tenth Man" is a quiet and well-observed comedy that wrestles with notions of identity, home and the intricacies of the father-son relationship. After years away, Ariel returns to Buenos Aires seeking to reconnect with his father Usher, who has founded a charity foundation in Once, the city's bustling Jewish district where Ariel spent his youth. In the process of trying to meet his father and getting entangled in his charitable commitments, Ariel also reconnects with his own Jewish roots. Usher staves off a meeting with his son, roping him into a number of small assignments, during the course of which Ariel meets Eva, who volunteers for Usher's charity. Eva's radiant inner strength and independent spirit inspires Ariel to come to grips with the traditions that once divided him and his father and to rethink his own identity.